Why does every salad seem to have cheese on it?

No cheese here: The Little Gem salad at Claudine. The San Francisco Chronicle

Here’s an email from a reader upset with what she considers a fad:

I’m wondering why restaurants are only offering salads with cheese on them. Lately, at the restaurants we’ve eaten at, just about every salad has some kind of cheese on it – blue, feta, ricotta salata, etc. For a starter, most of the time, I just want a rather simple salad. Other veggies, or fruit is fine, but I’m hard pressed to find cheeseless salads. If I ask to have the salad without the cheese, I’m usually told that they can leave it off, but there’s NEVER an offer to reduce the price. I can’t wait for this food fad to end.

Thanks for reading my rant.

I’m afraid this isn’t a trend. Greens and cheese are about as ubiquitous as oil and vinegar. The cheese adds a salty component—call it umami, if you will—that complements most ingredients in a salad. So just about every restaurant has a salad with cheese.

No cheese: Shaved vegetable salad at Redd Wood in Yountville

However it’s still common to find a salad without cheese. Frankly I’m not sure why a restaurant should reduce the price. If a customer asks for modifications, I only think it’s fair that the price stands. However if there’s not a cheeseless salad on the menu, most good restaurants could come up with something.

Out of curiosity I went back to look at the menus of some of the places I’ve been to recently; indeed just about every Western restaurant has a salad with cheese, but I found some that were unadorned—and delicious: